(final) Neighborhood of the week: Windgap. (Pittsburgh, Middletown: daycare, neighborhoods, shop)

[eschaton]

And so, my fellow forumers, we have worked our way through the alphabet of Pittsburgh neighborhoods, going from A to...W, and end with Windgap. If only I had anything of interest to say about the neighborhood.

Windgap is one of the less known neighborhoods in the West End of Pittsburgh. It borders the city neighborhoods of Chartiers City and Sheraden to the east, and Fairywood to the west. It also has small borders with Ingram, MCKees Rocks, and Kennedy Township. It's actually never been clear to me if Windgap actually has an identity as a neighborhood really. If you look at the neighborhood on satellite view there are two distinct residential areas which don't actually border one another. The northern one is directly adjacent to Chartiers City and part of the same block structure - functionally speaking the same neighborhood. Indeed, Chartiers Playground and Chartiers Early Childhood Center are both actually in Windgap. The "Windgap side" has historically been white, while Chartiers City was black, but this is less true now, with the area beginning to transition into a majority black "suburb" as well. The southern portion of Windgap is much smaller - basically an extension of western Sheraden (also called Corliss) on the opposite side of Middletown Avenue. This area is also very suburban, but less integrated.

Both sides of Chartiers are heavily dominated by suburban housing stock. Something like 40% of all building stock in the neighborhood was built between 1960 and 1979. There are some "interwar" blocks - particularly in the southern part of the neighborhood, but nothing which really passes for "urban." It seems like there was a very small business district around this intersection at one point, but aside from a daycare and a locally famous ice cream shop (which supposedly has the largest cone in Pittsburgh) there's not much left.

And so we've come to the end of the road. Still, I can't let go. Seriously though, Pittsburgh neighborhoods are done, but I still have 39 municipalities to go on the suburb of the week side, which means I'll still be doing weekly posts into 2019. The question is, is there anything else city-related I should be doing in the meantime?

[svband76]

Perhaps enjoying some time off

Is there a way on here to collect all of the neighborhood threads together in one place alphabetically? Thanks for your insights. I and others enjoy these discussions.

[Tractor Face]

Appreciate the plethora of great information! Somehow, you seem to have insider information and articulate it quite well. Hell, you probably have more information about my own neighborhood than I.

[RogersParkTransplant]

Originally Posted by eschaton

And so we've come to the end of the road. Still, I can't let go. Seriously though, Pittsburgh neighborhoods are done, but I still have 39 municipalities to go on the suburb of the week side, which means I'll still be doing weekly posts into 2019. The question is, is there anything else city-related I should be doing in the meantime?

Yes, thank you for these threads, they have been pretty fantastic. I don't mean to make demands, but since you asked...one idea would be to just start over again at "A" and bump an old neighborhood thread once a week, and ask people for updates. The city is changing so fast, and a lot of the threads mention local projects that might have made progress (or not) since this series began...

[Lost_In_Translation]

Eschaton, sir, you are a scholar and a gentleman and I salute you for your efforts. I feel like these threads or at least your posts should be archived for future city data’ers to be able to pull up. They have been well informed and excellent intros to all the areas Pittsburghers call home. Thank you!

[Merge]

Thank you, Eschaton, for all your efforts on this series.

[szug-bot]

Windgap is rather wide open and spacious, which can be a refreshing change of pace.

It is not a long walk to more retail in McKees Rocks, and a short drive to other shopping needs.

[gladhands]

I really appreciate the work you’ve done on this series. Thanks.

[jea6321]

I honestly can't believe you stuck to it and completed the list. Hats off to you sir. Great work!

[SteelCityRising]

Bravo, Eschaton!